The Bad: On my way to work this morning stopped at Cape Korean Spares. They’re supposed to open at 08:00 but the first fellow pitched at 08:20. He told me he can’t help me, he’s a mechanic and the salesman is stuck in traffic or something. And they do have the lights I’m after, maybe about “one eight”. Didn’t say if he figured that was for one or a pair.

So I proceeded on down Voortrekker Road looking for another place to obtain Hyundai tail lights…

The Good: I actually knew that Korean Boyz were down in Salt River, they were just a bit out of my way. But they had brand new first-model H-100 tail lights in stock, R860/pair.

I’m not a huge YouTube fan (most posters waffle for ages and eventually tell you something they could have condensed into a few lines of text) but in this case, the video is more informative than the picture + text version.

I found that I had clearance issues — I think I’m using older model backing plates with my new-model gearbox. A trial assembly showed that I needed to remove some metal from the bearing cover to allow it to seat flush on the brake backing plate.

The standard Beetle rigid brake pipe lengths are well documented but of course the Puma pipe from the front to the back is shorter, and my disk brake conversion also changes things.

A Beetle has a wheelbase of 2400mm while the Puma is 2160mm, 240mm shorter. I therefore had a 1950mm pipe made up to go from the front to the rear. The four short pipes at the back are the same, but since a too-short pipe can’t be stretched I had them made up at 200mm, 360mm (x2) and 660mm.

At the front I measured and found that I need 760 and 1110mm from the Golf master cylinder to the flexible hoses. The 760mm was spot on but the 1110mm turned out about 250mm too long. Dunno how that happened.

The next question is how to plumb the dual master cylinder to the wheels. Dual diagonal looks fail-safe, but I’m pretty sure it won’t work with a mix of disk and drum brakes. Also, I don’t want to change the single pipe to the rear for two pipes. So I will just connect the primary (closest to the pedal) to the front brakes, and the secondary to (1) the rear brakes (one hole) and (2) the brake light switch (other hole). I might need a proportioning valve and / or a residual valve though.

I ended up using a Golf brake fluid reservoir, I think the correct part number is 1J1 611 301. $25 off of eBay, and that for a second-hand part. Eish. Well at least it included the cap / switch (1J1 611 349). I should be able to top the brakefluid up by removing the right front wheel.

The 20mm blind grommet is perfect for the hole under the master cylinder. I was hoping to use the 562 grommet for where the brake line goes through the floor pan but the tube nut’s a bit too large to fit through the hole. Maybe if one made the pipe up with the grommets in place?

I measured the track rod lengths before taking them apart, short = 305mm and long = 825mm.

My front beam has the two little nubbins for locating the steering box left-to-right, but the nubbins that key into the steering box clamp are not there. I will most likely have to re-adjust things when the dashboard is fitted and the steering wheel is in place.

Steering box is 113 415 129 1 (113 415 061 is the number normally associated with the Beetle steering box). I bought it new, that’s just ten years’ worth of dirt on it. Anybody know which company uses the “E in gear” logo?

I had a hard time fitting the brake pads until I wheeled the Puma out into bright sunlight to have a close look. The bracket was just interfering with the inner pad. Quick to fix if you have an angle grinder.

Sorted.

I tried quite a few ways of routing the flexible brake lines (ISTR I had them especially made up? They might be a bit long) from the calipers to the chassis. This worked out best in terms of clearance and not rubbing against too many things.

I’m using a VW Golf II master cylinder. It answers to part numbers 191611019, H2098602, 53754013283 and 139085. My options were to either shorten the pushrod from the brake pedal, or to space the MC further towards the front of the car than the original cylinder, I went with the latter using pieces of threaded rod. I am sort of concerned about the whole thing flexing up and down, but I think the force is mostly in line with the bore and I must say, the cylinder seems quite stable.

Feeding the master cylinder is going to be a bit tricky I think. Beetle dual master cylinders have input grommets of (OD/ID) 24/11mm or 18/7mm, but the Golf input is 22/12mm (grommet part number 357611817). There are adaptors to connect a flex hose to the Beetle cylinder, but I don’t think anything like that exists for the Golf. And I don’t really want my brake fluid reservoir under the fuel tank where I can’t get at it (although as far as I know the Golf reservoir has a low fluid warning, I can wire that up to the dashboard and pretty much forget about it. And it is sort of accessible by removing the wheel).